sarah's law case study

Who was Sarah Payne, what happened to her and what is Sarah’s Law?

A new documentary about tragic schoolgirl Sarah Payne, who was abducted and murdered in 2000, is set to retrace her final moments in heartbreaking scenes.

A preview of the show Sarah Payne: The Untold Story, presenter Susanna Reid and Sarah’s mother Sara Payne are seen visiting the place where she was snatched by sex offender Roy Whiting.

The crime prompted a campaign for the introduction of Sarah’s Law, which was backed up by Sarah’s parents, which would allow parents with young children to find out if a child sex offender was living in their area.

Here’s what you need to know about Sarah Payne and Sarah’s Law.

Who was Sarah Payne and what happened to her?

Sarah Payne was an eight-year-old schoolgirl from Hersham in Surrey, who disappeared on the evening of 1 July 2000 from a cornfield near the home of her paternal grandparents in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, where she and her siblings – Lee, 13, Luke, 12 and six-year-old Charlotte – had been playing.

Her body was found on 17 July in a field near Pulborough, around 15 miles from where she had last been seen, following an extensive search of the area by both police officers and volunteers, as well as her family making daily appeals on TV.

Undated collect picture of Sarah Payne, aged 8, who went missing from the Kingston area of Littlehampton on Saturday. A major police search was under way for the missing eight year old from Surrey who has been missing for 16 hours. * About 50 officers and 80 volunteers were looking for Sarah Payne, who was last seen at 9.30pm yesterday in a field near her grandparents' house in Peak Lane, Ferring, near Worthing, West Sussex. Police believe the youngster became separated from her six-year-old sister and brothers, aged 11 and 13, with whom she had an argument. * 23/08/00 Police investigating the abduction and murder of schoolgirl Sarah Payne were due to make fresh appeals to the public in a bid to catch her killer. Det Supt Alan Ladley, a senior member of the inquiry team, was expected to make specific new appeals during a news conference at 2pm at Littlehampton police station in West Sussex. * 09/11/00: Police hunting Sarah's killer were starting a fresh search for the schoolgirl's dress. Officers received more than 300 calls and are sifting through the new information after a reconstruction of the girl's disappearance was shown on BBC's Crimewatch programme on 08/11/00. 25/11/00: Detectives hunting the killer of eight-year-old Sarah Payne believe they may have found a fragment of her dress and her remaining shoe, police said. The material, which officers think is the blue Fred Perry-style dress Sarah was wearing when abducted, was found in a hedgerow about a mile from where her ody was found. 24/12/00: 24/12/00: The family are to spend part of Christmas Day at Sarah's grave placing presents there for her. While the rest of the country celebrates the festive season, the Payne family will be going through the torment of their first Christmas without Sarah. The eight-year-old's mother Sara admitted the family were "dreading it" and it will be very difficult for herself, her husband Michael and their children Lee, 13, Luke, 11, and six-year-old Charlotte. *03/02/01 Saturday February 3, 2001, after it emerged a man previously quizzed about her murder was about to be rearrested. Detectives hunting the eight-year-old's killer were understood to be preparing to question a 42-year-old man they had already interviewed twice before in connection with the youngster's abduction and murder. Sarah, from Hersham, Surrey, went missing near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. Her partially buried body was found 16 days later just off the A29 near Pulborough. Police believe she was strangled or suffocated. 6/2/2001: Roy Whiting, 42, from Littlehampton, West Sussex was re-arrested by detectives hunting the killer of the eight-year-old. Whiting, was taken from a location in Kent to Bognor police station, West Sussex. Sarah, from Hersham, Surrey, disappeared near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, on July 1 last year. Her partially-buried body was found 16 days later just off the A29 near Pulborough, about 15 miles north of where she was last seen. Police believe she was strangled or suffocated. 19/2/2001: Roy William Whiting, the man accused of kidnapping and murdering eight-year-old Sarah was appearing court Monday February 19 2001. Whiting, 42, was expected at Lewes Crown Court for a preliminary hearing in the case, starting at 9.45am before Judge Richard Brown. Whiting, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, first appeared at Chichester Crown Court 12 days ago. Sarah, from Hersham, Surrey, disappeared near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, East Preston, on July 1 last year. Her partially-buried body was found 16 days later a short distance from the A29 near Pulborough, West Sussex. 30/6/01: A memorial service to murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne is to take place on the first anniversary of the eight-year-old's disappearance. Residents in Worthing, West Sussex, will gather on Goring beach to celebrate the life of the youngster, who was abducted from a country lane near Littlehampton. Sarah was just 150 yards from her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse when she disappeared on July 1 last year. Her body was discovered two weeks later off the A27 near Pulborough. The memorial service, which will take place at the bottom of Aldsworth Avenue between from 7pm, has the full backing of Sarah's parents and grandparents, although it is not known whether Sarah's family will attend. 13/11/01: Sarah Payne, aged 8, who went missing from the Kingston area of Littlehampton in July of last year and was found dead 17 days later. The trial of the man accused of the abduction and murder of eight-year-old schoolgirl was starting at at Lewes Crown Court, Tuesday 13 November, 2001. Roy William Whiting, 42, a builder and mechanic, denies abducting and murdering Sarah, from Hersham, Surrey. The girl disappeared while playing near her grandparents' home sparking one of the country's largest missing person investigations with her body being found on agricultural land over two weeks later. 12/12/01: Roy Whiting, 42, has been found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court of kidnapping and murdering Sarah, who was snatched on July 1 last year from a country lane near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. Her body was found 16 days later in a shallow grave off the A29 road in Pulborough.

Roy Whiting, who at the time was serving a sentence for a driving offence and car theft, was charged with the abduction and murder of Sarah in February 2001.

He was convicted in December of that year and was sentence to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 50 years, which was later reduced to 40 on appeal.

Sara Payne, now 50, published a book in 2017 entitled Letters To Sarah, consisting of letters she wrote to her daughter – who would now have been 27.

She told The Sun at the time that she still talks to Sarah in her head almost every day, explaining: ‘It helps me feel closer to her.

‘Writing letters to her has helped to make up in a small way for the teenage years and beyond that I didn’t get with her, it has made her more real.’

What is Sarah’s Law?

Sarah’s Law was campaigned for by newspaper the News Of The World, with Sara Payne and Sarah’s late father Michael backing the cause.

It emerged after Roy Whiting was convicted of Sarah Payne’s murder that he had a previous conviction for abducting and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl – for which he served four years in prison – and Sara and Michael argued at the time that had they known this it could have saved Sarah’s life.

The law, which is also known as the Child Sex Offencer Disclosure Scheme, and allows parents with young children to formally ask the police if someone who has access to a child has a criminal record for child sex offences.

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If a person with access to a child does have any convictions for sex offences against children, the information will be given to the child’s immediate care givers i.e a parent or guardian.

The law is similar in nature to Megan’s Law in the US, which was introduced there following the murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka by her neighbour in 1994.

It was piloted in four areas of England and Wales in September 2008 before being extended to the whole of England and Wales in 2011.

Sarah Payne: The Untold Story is on ITV on Thursday night at 9pm.

Arrow MORE: ‘Suicide bomber’ lived in the former home of Sarah Payne killer Roy Whiting

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